No Apologizing Holiday Season – The Purpose of the Home, Roasted Red Grapes & Rosemary Appetizer
Today I’m sharing an easy recipe, Roasted Red Grapes & Rosemary Appetizer, perfect for holiday entertaining!
I’m so glad you are joining me the next 5 days, as I share about a “No Apologizing Holiday Season” and a menu with 5 holiday recipes! Today I’m sharing an easy appetizer recipe.
But let’s first start with the home. The purpose of the home—is it only for our own comfort, or is it also for sharing with others, imperfections and all?
The holidays can be a wonderful time for many, in opening our homes for parties, meals, and traditions.
But can we do it without apologizing for something?
I’m sorry for …
The last 21 years of marriage, my husband and I have opened our home to others. Our first humble home was 1100 square feet, but we still managed to invite families over for dinner. The adults would sit in the small dining room and we’d be creative with the little kids. I was thankful that we even had a home – a place where we could share the common life together with friends and family, usually around a very simple meal.
Then we moved to a slightly bigger home, but it still had a small dining room, and other reasons why we shouldn’t entertain.
But, we did it anyway.
Our house is larger now, but along the way, I’ve learned to look beyond the size of my home and the things that embarrassed me.
Embarrassed me? Seriously, that was very small thinking.
If friends are truly our friends, they are not coming to our home to judge or criticize, or … compare. If they are, then they are the ones with the problem.
The crazy excuses in our heads
We have to get over the excuses that stop us from experiencing joy and fellowship with others.
-The house needs painting.
-The carpet is stained.
-The furniture is old and falling apart.
-I’m a horrible cook.
When we think this way, hospitality actually becomes more about us, and less about others. Less about the real reasons we should be sharing our home.
Once we get that through our heads, we experience freedom. I promise, it works!
Focus on what you love
Take what you LOVE about your home, and expound on that. Focus on what you LOVE about your home.
For me, I love our intimate, cozy living room. This is the place where our guests gather for appetizers.
It’s very small, but you can see that it’s intimate and people have a good time.
Easy appetizer
If you’re unsure about an appetizer to make, stick with what you know. One of the best appetizers ever includes:
-Fresh fruit.
-A hunk of delicious cheese.
-Crispy, salty crackers
It’s really the easy!
Familiarity will boost your confidence.
Another festive holiday recipe for appetizers is to roast red grapes. Red grapes are an easy fruit to keep on hand, and it only takes few minutes to pop in the oven, and to serve with goat cheese and warm crostini.
Don’t forget to finely chop rosemary and sprinkle on top. Tasty and your guests will love you!
Or, you can always ask your guests to bring the appetizer!
What apologies do you make for your home?
Get the Recipe:
Roasted Red Grapes and Rosemary Appetizer
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Seedless red grapes
- Fresh rosemary
- Olive Oil, drizzle
- Kosher salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Carefully toss the grapes with olive oil, salt, pepper and small amount of chopped rosemary. Roast for 10 minutes.
- Serve warm on crostini spread with a light layer of goat cheese. Garnish with rosemary twigs.
REVIEW all 5 posts and fabulous recipes:
Day 1: The Purpose of the Home, Roasted Grapes & Fresh Rosemary
Day 2: Culinary Mistakes and Beauchamp Orchard Salad
Day 3: Learning to be Authentic and Pesto Baked Potatoes
Day 4: Don’t Plan for Perfection and Crusted Pepper Prime Rib
Day 5: Laugh at Your Mistakes with Holiday Poached Pears
Photos in this post by David Gibb Photography.
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
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This sounds just lovely. Perfect advice, Sandy! I am guilty of this more often than I care to admit lately.
Great advice! It’s terrible that most of us wait for months, even years until we get the house just right to invite people over.
I truly adore this post! You are so right about true friends! I really love opening our home to people and need to remember it’s not about the home, but about the people we are inviting in!
You know it Sandy! I was bugging my hubs to fix the dining room ceiling before hosting 14 for Thanksgiving. He didn’t have the time to do it and guess what? No one noticed. And if they did, they didn’t care. They were grateful for the meal, the small details I put into it and the friends gathered, not a big missing piece of plaster. This appetizer looks insanely delish! I’ve never roasted a grape before, but I now see that I must. Soon.
xo!!
Heather
You are so right. (again!!) Our apologies are so prohibitive of just enjoying each other. I made a roasted grapes app on Thanksgiving – it disappeared way fast!!! Hope you had a beautiful Thanksgiving with your family. xo
Over the past 6 months we’ve had the opportunity to host lots of get togethers and visitors staying with us. I’m amazed at how much easier it gets each time we have people over. Having a menu planned out each week helps me have others over too. I know if we have last minute people coming over and they want to bring something it’s easy to give them an item to bring. Or I can switch to another days menu idea that serves more people. Your grape and rosemary recipe sounds amazing!
Thank you for sharing!
Slightly different take away from the post but you inspired me last week to not apologize. I did just that. I have a lot on my plate right now but I hosted Thanksgiving anyhow. But with that comes expectations I put on myself or I feel others have of me being in the culinary field. I would normally make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for guests, but I had to work at the bakery for the holiday weekend and just didn’t have the energy to cook so much. I made no apologies and let everyone know that they are welcome to all of the food, there was plenty and I will only be making Thanksgiving dinner. No apologies alllll weekend. I felt happy and relaxed that everyone took care of themselves and even made me lunch knowing I had work to do. So thank you very much.
Love the top photo. Everyone is so engaged! Absolutely fantastic. Thank you for all the encouraging ideas.
I live about 20-30 minutes from my “community” (where I used to live and where my kids still go to school). I apologize and am often reluctant to invite people over because of the long drive.
What timely and GREAT reminders. It is so easy to make it about myself (ahem….I know that is hard to fathom….) Merry Christmas and I hope it is filled with joy and blessings!
Here’s to authenticity and transparency in all our relationships!
My biggest apology is always that it’s not clean or organized enough. But the people we invite over understand that with two giant labs and a baby and working from home – it’s our life!
Thank you for writing this series. I’ve struggled a bit about opening up my home. I’ve also struggled with my dh’s expectations for the entertaining to happen certain ways. We’re a work in progress!
Well my kids beat the snot out of my wall and I really need to have the whole house repainted. Whenever we have people over I try to magic-erase all the spots!
We Americans have become so independent that we have isolated ourselves, and wow- a lot of lonely people out there just looking for some authenticity …it’s a burden on my heart for the church. It’s been a topic that we have wrestled with- culture shock, I guess, coming back. I’ve been chewing on it as we try to settle these past months and sometime will try to actually put my heart into words. I love that you are encouraging and teaching these things!!!!
That’s a great photo, Sandy! I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. I love this series, and need to go catch up on what I miss over the Thanksgiving break!
The only thing I really ever apologize for are the messes in my children’s rooms. If guests insist on seeing the whole house I warn them that I don’t know what my children’s rooms will look like at any given moment! Most of my guests are parents, so they don’t care if the kids rooms are messy!
Love the picture of you all gathered around the coffee table! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. :)